Loaches Online Forum

Im about to do my 4th dose with maracyn/maracyn 2.

All my fish are breathing quite hard, especially my clown loaches.

I check my water and it reads as follows :

PH 7.1
Nitrite - .25 - .50
Ammonia - 0

Looks like the maracyn took out my biological filtration.

Im doing a 20% water change right now.

Should i stop dosing the maracyn all together and keep doing daily water changes till my bio filter is back on track?

Help! This is my 1st experience w. maracyn.

Can you give us some more info. Tank size/ inhabitants, symptoms other than rapid respiration. It would help with the problem. In my opinion more frequent water changes usually help though.

I do frequent water changes, but im in the middle of a maracyn/maracyn2 treatment.

I just added Seachem Prime in 5x overdose to help remove the nitrite.

The tank is a 150Gallon Tank.

Clown Loaches, Rainbow Fish, SAE, Tiger Barbs, Blue Rams, Corys

Rapid respiration is my only symptom right now, the fish are still swimming around.

sorry glos, i just read your previous thread, i assume same tank. personally i would try quarantining the sick fish in a separate tank. i am not big on meds and since you're on the 4th dose i would say they aren't working. my advice would be to try doing water changes every other day of 20 to 25 %, clean water can help the fish's immune system fight off the illness. at the very least i would try a different med.
if you do quarantine, do a couple of 50% water changes in the main tank and then let the system recover. better to lose one fish than the whole tank.
good luck

I have had quite a bit of experience with Maracyn 1 and 2 and only had one instance when it did any damage to the filter. That instance involved a higher than recommended dosage.
Unless you have done that, it is probably not maracyn that has caused your problem. Have you added any new fish recently?
Regardless, you do have a problem. I wouldn't stop using maracyn 1 & 2 until you have completed at least the first round (5 treatments).
If you do, you run the risk of the disease causing bacteria in your tank developing resistance to antibiotics. That is not good and it could come back to haunt you later.
After completing the treatment, you can do a water change.

Do you have any way of increasing the aeration of the water until then? You could add an airstone or two. You could lower the tank level so that the return from the filter splashes back into the tank, or do both.
If you want to remove nitrites you might want to add some ammo chips in a media bag into the filter or the tank or both.
I hope this helps.
Keep us posted and good luck!!!

Ive been using 14 tables per day of each for a 150G Tank.

I figured that be just right.

The seachem Prime reduced my nitrite to about 10-12, and i just finished changing the water, I have raised the spraybar of my eheim to cause more splashing of the water.

Have not added new fish, all I did was float some Indian Water Sprite.

On a few occasions when I've used both Maracyn's together I've seen nitrite spikes too. Your dose sounds right if you giving 14 tablets of each once a day in a 150g tank. If the heavy breathing was not a prior symptom I'm 99% certain that the Maracyn treatment has compromised the bio filter's ablity to process nitrite and the fish are suffering from nitrite poisioning.

Using the Prime and doing water changes is the suggested remedy for nitrite spikes. You can also try adding 3 or 4 times the ususual dose of Cycle bacterial booster and increase the aeration.

BTW what were you using the Maracyn's to treat? After 4 rounds if the fish are still sick, I might consider trying something else.

P.S. To beat a dead horse....unless what the fish has is highly contagious or parasitic, it's always best to treat only the affected fish in a fully cycled hospital tank. It spares the stress and risks associated with dosing all the fish in your display tank...less stress for both you and the fish.

When treating, I always estimate the volume of the gravel, decorations and plants and remove from the total. I think in a 150g tank you would have at least 20g volume of gravel, etc. Of course, this would only be a slight overdose.

Usually if there is a nitrite or ammonia spike it's only temporary as the beneficial bacteria has been disturbed, not wiped out entirely.

Good luck with your treatment.